Sunday, March 29, 2009

Palouse Potters attend the Brush Making Workshop

Several members of the Palouse Potters Guild attended the Brush making workshop held at the 1912 Center and taught by ceramic artist and master brushmaker, Glenn Grishkoff.

The brushes were made of bamboo and various animal hair. They were glued together with epoxy glues and embellished with materials such as sinew, waxed linen thread, wood-burning tools, leather, and beads. These made not only beautiful and varied brushes, but also brushes that are much sturdier for practical use than commercially made brushes.


This is a group of completed brushes made by Jeanne Wood.



Here, Glen explains some of the techniques to Val Boydo.


A grouping of Carolyn Guy's varied and beautiful brushes in progress as she works on them.


Although we focused and worked hard at the Brush Workshop, we managed to have a lot of fun too as Val and Ryan Law show. An impressive array of brushes in progress, made by Val, are on the table in front of her. Ryan is in the process of writing an article on Glenn's Brushmaking and his valuable workshops.
Thanks Glenn Grishkoff, http://www.grishkoffstudios.com/ for generously sharing your knowledge, skill, ideas, and talent with us. this was a great workshop.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Saggar barrel firing

On March 1st. 2009 Judith and Gary Marvin invited the Palouse Studio Potters Guild members to a saggar firing at their beautiful home and studio outside Southwick Idaho.
Judith has done many saggar firings and taken workshops in saggar firing, so she taught the rest of us who had not previously tried these interesting techniques.

Preparing the Pots: this vase by Jeanne Wood was painted with ferric chloride, a few horse hairs were laid on it and then some table salt was sprinkled over the mixture before it dried. The next step was to loosely wrap it in heavy aluminum foil.


Loading the Barrel: Here is the "High Tech Kiln" ;-) Paige Van Weis places dried banana peels around the pots. The blue substance is Miracle Gro.

Firing the saggar: After the barrel has been filled to the brim with pots, various chemicals and combustable materials it was lit and allowed to burn for several hours. We adjorned indoors for a fantastic potluck lunch.


Adding horsehair: However, like the proverbial Children at Christmas, we couldn't wait until it was cooled down to see what the results were. It was still hot as can be judged by the red coals. At this point we ignored the pouring rain, braved the heat from the coals, and leaned in close to lay horsehair on the hot pots. You can see some carbon squiggles from the horsehairs.

Unloading the saggar: Alas not all pots came out successfully as this amphora shows.


Some came out great, however. Check out the wonderful colors on Judith's vase.